Wars between Star(-)Wars

AI mix of Star Wars and a lamp

Think of an 'interstellar' brand and undoubtedly Star Wars comes to mind.

Star Wars has been globally renowned for decades. Unfortunately, famous brands are still occasionally 'borrowed' by companies for different products or services. This recently happened when Longshan Lin registered the 'Star Wars' brand in the European Union for lamps and lights. Lucasfilm, the production company behind the STAR-WARS franchise, filed a request to have the trademark cancelled. According to Lucasfilm, the trademark was free-riding on the distinctiveness and reputation of its STAR-WARS word trademark.  

Lucasfilm submitted ample evidence to confirm the reputation of its trademark. The demonstrated value of the trademark, which has been in use in the European Union for more than 40 years, was considered impressive. The reputation of Star Wars in the production, distribution and showing of feature films, television programmes and toys, is incontrovertible. It was established that the marks are identical, the hyphen not being sufficient to speak of a significant difference between them. Even though the trademarks were not registered for the same type of products, the relevant consumer would inevitably form a mental association with Lucasfilm's STAR-WARS trademark.

Not only would people make a connection between the two trademarks, but the disputed trademark would possibly also benefit from immediate recognition by virtue of its association with the pre-existing STAR-WARS trademark. This would enable the trademark to free-ride on the investments that Lucasfilm has made to promote and build goodwill for the trademark franchise.

As you probably already guessed, the Star Wars word trademark for lamps, lights and spare parts has been declared invalid. Thus, no more ‘Star Wars’ lighting from Longshan Lin.